“Happy 20th CCTV! You can almost drink!” Big Digits’ TD Sidell hollered before bounding off stage. I’m no proponent of underage drinking, but Cambridge Community Television should have been allowed to swig liberally from a flask in the bathroom on Saturday night for this utterly bizarre celebration of two decades of public access.

I had expected some sort of presentation of the channel’s cream-of-the-crop in between musical performances, but instead there was a loop of videos, about an hour long, that repeated soundlessly against the far right wall of the Middle East upstairs, remaining on mute even during breaks between sets. Some clips didn’t need sound: Pete the Human Floor, who took no issue with people stapling dollar bills to his face and shirtless torso; Roger Nicholson, the self-proclaimed “Howard Stern of CCTV,” who after interviewing a topless woman on his show became embroiled in the infamous “Tittygate” scandal of 2004; the “Ellsworth Gun and Kitten Outlet,” which was proud to proclaim: “Guns! Kittens! Kitten Corral! FUN! FUN! FUN!” Others, like “The Phil Collins Sing-A-Long Hour,” would have benefitted from audio so we could have heard how “Sussudio” fared, or what on earth Danny Glover was doing on public access in the first place.

The crowd seemed to be three-fourths CCTV employees, many 40-plus, but a few bobbed their heads along to Big Digits’ frenzied set — even though they probably don’t listen to much electro-freestyle performed in chain mail. Attendance thinned out to about 20 during Magic People’s ambient (if esoteric) noise set and remained that way for the rest of the evening. The evacuees missed not only the thundering power hour of Three Day Threshold but a performance by the Sift that would have fit nicely in the video montage: three normal-looking dudes played while in the center of the stage a fourth contorted himself like an interpretive dancer, wearing yellow fuzzy earmuffs, matching jockey shorts, a silver sequined jacket with gaudy roses, and nothing else. Incongruous, awkward, sometimes shocking, and uniformly entertaining. If the goal was to bring to life for a night the strange beast that is cable access, they nailed it.

Winter warmers Sure, some bands take the easy route and have album releases through the summer, enticing you to shows with back-patio barbecues and all-night rooftop after-parties. In January? Not so much.

Are you ready for some Footballz? These days, thanks to Internet-related information overload, football fans are more educated than ever. So why, exactly, do we need idiotic TV commentators telling us what we already know about how talented Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson are, or that the game all comes down to turnovers?

Crash proof I've never trusted music that's too engineered, too perfect. Headphones on the drummer and a hundred tracks running off a laptop? Most bands practice and practice to get things just right, but it's that threat of the unexpected that makes a show worth seeing.

Epics in minutes Rupert Clervaux has made a game out of reading how people dissect his band's sound. As a multi-instrumentalist in the London collective Sian Alice Group (who come to the Middle East on Monday), he hears the whole spectrum of genres.

Injustice for all Scott Sturgeon loses his train of thought a couple of times during this interview. He's loopy from jet lag — which is unavoidable after a 20-hour flight from New Zealand (halfway around the planet from his non-residency at a squatted apartment building in New York City), where he's just finished a tour with his claim-to-fame band, Leftover Crack.

Epic Win It never seemed possible, but metal is finally getting comfortable with indie-rock proportions. What once required enormous stages with catwalks and hyperactive spark machines now really needs only kids throwing all-ages shows in basements. It's a bit more modest an existence — nobler, somehow. Nerdier, even.

Hit the deck It's not that Celebration were ever a bad fit for 4AD. The echo-chamber organs, the tribal drumming, and the caterwauling vocals of Katrina Ford added up to a kind of desert-peyote and fringed-suede-jacket version of the more twisted stuff in the label's catalogue, from the Birthday Party to Blonde Redhead.

He shall overcome There’s nothing lamer than articles that lead with cheap metaphors inspired by an artist’s stage name. But I can’t avoid this one: when Amadeus the Stampede rushes, get the fuck out of the way.

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT | February 18, 2009 "Happy Valentine's Day. That was a saint, right? St. Valentine?" mumbled Lewis & Clarke's (wasted?) frontman/sonic adventurer, Lou Rogai.

CHRISTMAS ON MARS | October 28, 2008 Stylized after the sci-fi B-movies of yore, the film recycles Atomic Age angst: a group living in a space station on Mars have run out of spare parts, and it seems that everyone’s doomed.

ADORING PUBLIC | October 24, 2008 If the goal was to bring to life for a night the strange beast that is cable access, they nailed it.

GAG REFLEX | January 28, 2010 “You are in the elite first wave of people to hear this stuff,” Ben Folds told us Friday night with a smirk, possibly no longer able to be serious on stage after nearly two decades of tongue planted firmly in cheek.

FOR THE DOGS | July 31, 2008 In June, seven greyhounds suffered broken legs within a six-day period at Massachusetts’s two racetracks.